The Independent Center for Integrative Education: Learning without Limits
11/30/2010
The topic of our third class was choosing the type and location of our underwater colony as well as naming it, designing its flag, national anthem, motto, and national emblem. The participants did a great job researching and defending their projects.
Dan’s colony was supposed to be located “somewhere in the Atlantic ocean,” deep underwater and on the bottom of the ocean to protect it from storms and other disasters occurring on the surface. Dan drew a sketch of the flag that has a golden trident on a blue background. The trident is directed upward, symbolizing our future progress. Two seahorses and two dolphins next to the trident emphasize our proximity to nature. The dolphins also swim upward, adding their encouraging message to that of the trident.
Caoilin suggested building our colony where there are less tropical storms and the water is warmer and richer with plankton. She did not want to go deeper than 700 feet and later changed this to 200 feet after learning that at 700 feet it is too dark for flourishing vegetation and therefore there is little plankton. Below is an illustration of how water absorbs light (http://www.marinebiology.org/oceanography.htm).
Caoilin also noted that we should not bother building sturdy constructions that would withstand tremendous pressure of water in the depth but rather equalize air pressure inside the buildings with the water pressure outside. She illustrated her point with a plastic glass turned upside down and immersed in water. Increased air pressure inside the glass prevented water from filling the glass.
Underwater house Demonstration with plastic glass
(With the help of volunteers, I presented further illustration of the power of water pressure using some home-made equipment such as a Happy Chanukah balloon, latex tubing, and a broken plastic wineglass for a funnel).
Caoilin chose the Guatemala Basin as the right place for the colony. It satisfies all the conditions and is also far away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and other tectonic boundaries, so there are no earthquakes and volcanoes.
Here is Caoilin’s sketch of her flag:
She explained that the yellow is the sun and the teal is the water, and there are stylized waves. The infinity sign symbolizes that our ways and means have no limit.
Akiva and Meir worked as a team. They suggested locating the colony next to Florida, because the waters there are clean, it is warm, and we can grow underwater plants. There are no earthquakes or volcanoes, and hurricanes will not bother us underwater. We should not go deep so that if anything happens we can use tubes to get air. Akiva and Meir would like our colony to have its own government but keep a close relationship with the land to trade and in case of emergency. The colony can support itself financially by exporting our scientific discoveries and selling fruits of the sea. Akiva and Meir suggested naming the colony Atlantis. Their flag is an image of a city inside a transparent dome, with fish around it so that everybody understands it is under water. On the banner on top of the flag there will be the motto “WE CAN DO ANYTHING.” (It is unfortunate that I don’t have a copy to show their design). They brought a guitar so we expected them to sing their anthem and instead they gave a copy of the lyrics to Caoilin who volunteered to read it aloud. The anthem is supposed to be sung to the tune of the American national anthem using the following words:
Adina did not specify an exact place for the colony. She suggested that for security purposes and “to make things easier,” we need to acquire a piece of land in a tropical area. If something goes wrong, we will have a place to go. She suggested using thermal gradients to produce electricity. The food would come from harvesting plankton, algae and seaweeds as well as fishing (Caoilin was against fishing for humanistic reasons). Adina told a story she had learned from Eugene of a man who lived for twelve days under water and used algae to regenerate air so that he could breathe. Adina suggested naming the colony Atlantis 2.0. For the anthem she used… Well, if you click here, you can listen to it; just imagine everybody standing with their right hand over their hearts (credits to Eugene who came up with the idea). Adina’s flag from far away would remind you of the Stars and Stripes, but the stripes are wavy, and there is a trident instead of the stars, its three prongs representing peace, progress, and prosperity. Looking closely, one can see a little yellow periscope that goes with the anthem. The Great Seal has an image of turkey-mermaid (turmaid?) with a trident. The motto on the banner reads: AD FUNDUM, AD FONTES, AD NAUSEUM, ECCE HOMO,” which means “To the bottom (of the ocean), to the sources (of knowledge), to the point of making one sick (nothing can stop us!), behold the man!”
Emma believes that the colony should be located somewhere on the equator, not deep, somewhere between 50 and 200 m (150 to 600 feet), so there is plenty of sunlight and water is warm, up to 107oF or even 127oF.
Copied from http://www.lincoln2.smmusd.org/staff/Seymour_Web/saltwater.htm
The land should not be too far away, so that in case of emergency there will be some place to go. The colony would live off farming, producing plankton, seaweed, algae, and fish (Caoilin was against the last item for humanistic reasons). Emma also suggested that we conserve energy and use submersibles (little submarines) for transportation and research. Her flag looks like it happened to be in a battle -- with bullet wholes and everything (she claimed that the four holes represented her sister at age four).
Eugene’s ideas were totally unorthodox. For starters, he noted that underwater does not necessarily mean under the ocean and therefore he suggested to build the colony on the Delaware River. The motivation: Delaware was the first of the American states. He also suggested that the goal of an underwater colony is to work under water, not necessarily to live there, so his colony would be located on the land with the means to go underwater for doing things. For the motto, he suggested “STAT VICTUS POSEIDON,” which means “Poseidon stands defeated.” The anthem he generously shared with Adina. His flag shows a bottle of water that symbolizes the sea with a (yellow) submarine and a tiny human to emphasize how small we are as compared to the ocean. The large white area surrounding the bottle suggests that after we colonize the water, there will be the rest of the Universe – the Great Unknown -- to go.
John decided that the colony should be found in the pacific, somewhere between the US and China (so that we can use cheap Chinese labor) but closer to the US. He would name it the USS (United Underwater Society). The colony would live exporting fish and water plants and providing attractions for (rich) tourists. (Caoilin did not like the fish part of it for humanistic reasons).
Zach had not prepared a presentation because he did not receive the email with the assignments. He, however, actively participated in the discussions and asked interesting questions. During a fruitful discussion about the merits of building our houses out of glass, he wondered how we will clean the glass from barnacles. In response, Dan presented his recent invention – a special robotic device that can do the job.
At the end of the class, it was decided that there is no law that forbids the country to have more than one National Anthem, so both anthems are now official. As to the flag, it was decided to combine all suggested flags into one. Possibly, something like this:
However, my attempt to avoid a vote on the location and type of the colony failed. I suggested that everyone could work on their own project so that we can compare how similar problems have different solutions depending on the settings. This suggestion was firmly and unanimously rejected. The results of the vote are:
- Location: Guatemala Basin
- Status: independent country
- Depth: 200 feet.
Below is a map of the region.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
Now, when we decided how the colony will function and where it will be, we need to raise money to actually build it. There are a number of places we can look, including but not limiting to:
· Governments
· Banks
· Large corporations
· Wealthy individuals (a.k.a. Angels, a.k.a. Maecenases)
· Venture capitalists
· General public
As we are not going to be a part of any country, we will have to think hard how to convince governments to invest in us. I encourage you to be creative and come up with ideas. Honestly, as of today, I have none.
Banks are looking for a promising investment. To convince them to lend us money, we will have to prove that we are in fact promising. We need a business plan, which would, among other things, describe what we are going to do; how we are going to do it; what the expertise and experience of our leaders is; the structure and amount of our expected expenses; how we are going to generate revenue; and when we are going to pay the bank back with an interest. (If some of the words above sound unfamiliar, please look them up).
Large corporations may be interested in us for our (expected) scientific achievements and as a potential market for their own products. More ideas, anybody?
Wealthy individuals may invest in us if we convince them that our cause is worthy and noble.
Venture capitalists look for a promising opportunity to make money. They invest in start-ups so that if the company is successful, they get their money back with huge interest. The interest is huge to compensate for the losses the venture capitalists undergo with those many companies that are not successful. They may require up to 90% of the stock of the startup… We may not want their money yet.
The general public typically invests into a business by buying its stock. For that being possible, the company should “go public,” so that its stock is sold on exchanges. The exchanges only sell stocks of well established companies, so we may have no luck here. Maybe later…
At our next class, we will give your ideas a try. Our group will play the role of investors (from a category you choose), and you will have to prepare a presentation to convince those investors to invest into our project. You will have to come up with some clear and creative ideas for presenting your case. Don’t feel overwhelmed, it is going to be fun!
As always, please feel free to use all the available resources. You can talk to friends, parents, and teachers (including me, you can reach me at edu@fradkov.com), read books and magazines, watch YouTube or Discovery Channel videos, google around, etc. In your presentation, you may want to use visual aids and all other expressive means your creativity would suggest.
I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday.
-Valéry